We went to catch Via 85 at CN Guelph Junction and then 432 at the viaduct at lunch time. In the afternoon, Walter advised that a BNSF was in second place on 398 and a third unidentified engine was following it. We went to Scotch Block to catch it. The BNSF unit ran out of gas less than a mile from us and the train went by us at what the crew reported to the RTC was 13 miles per hour. The third unit turned out to be an ICE engine.

CEFX 1054 was heard leaving Nissouri which gave me ample warning to catch it at Guelph Junction. We ended up catching 5 trains at the Junction in a little under 2 hours including CEFX 1054, a Hamilton sub train with 3 red SOO SD60s, and CP 5911 - a large multimark unit, one of only three remaining.

I left Laura and a friend at a fabric store in Guelph and headed down to Guelph Junction to catch a set of trains I'd been tracking on the scanner. I missed the first one by fractions of a second, but it was ham turn running light. The next two went by heading East, one off the Ham sub one off Galt OCS territory. After them I figured there would be no trains for a while and headed back to Guelph, hearing GEXR detector 56.2 as I entered the Hanlon. I thought I might be able to beat 432 to the overpass at Victoria and Elizabeth, but was too late to set up a shot. After that I saw OSR switching PDI and called it a day. It was worth a try, anyway.

In a remarkable repetition of events I discovered that I had, again, lost one of my camera batteries the day before (update: battery found 2005-01-22 -- in a couch). I went back to the only place it could be and did not find it there, but on the way, heard GEXR #432 coming with CEFX 6537 leading and decided that'd be a worthwhile detour, catching it from the North side of the tracks at the Alma road grade crossing.

Jay, Chris, Steve, and myself met up with Walter in Ingersoll. For the first time, I attempted to take pictures of the same trains with two cameras at the same time, one angled for approach, the other for going-away shots. The photos were then renumbered against the time-stamps to try to put them in order, until I discovered that the two cameras' clocks were out of synch. I figured the two cameras were 26 seconds apart, and that is what this sequence is based on.

CN seemed like a good place to go, so I spent a few hours at the Ingersoll Via station. On my way home, I saw an approach signal under the 401 and went up to the first crossing South of the highway to catch Ham turn and its whopping 22 axles.

After a weekend of snow, we wanted to catch OSR heading to Guelph breaking through snow banks, but were disappointed to find the snowbanks not really breakable and the foreman going ahead of the train, so we tried our luck at the Junction instead since we were already up and on the move.

On the 3rd, GEXR ran #432 to Mac yard. #431 came back in the late afternoon. Then, after #88, #432 went to Mac yard again. Today, GEXR #432 returned from Mac yard following Via #85 in from Silver around lunch time, and in the late afternoon, I heard #432 announcing its departure from Kitchener. It crossed the detector at 56.2... then 30 minutes later crossed at 56.2 again. Hours went by, and Via #88 called Kitchener mileboard. GEXR #432 came back on the air and told #88 they'd be following them to Silver after spending the day in the shop track. So Chris, Laura, and I met Steve at the Guelph Via station to watch the two trains. While #88 was going by, Chris' camera batteries died and he didn't have any spares, and as #432 approached, my camera set up for the video went into a fatal error mode and refused to cooperate until the moment the train was out of sight, when it came back on and pretended nothing happened. My camera set up for still shooting, on the other hand, was able to be switched to video just on time to catch the first frame with #432's leader right in front of me. Oh, the complications in such a simple task. These few shots are dedicated to the crew of tonight's #88.

GEXR #433, usually a dedicated train from Kitchener to London for autoframes followed #432 to Guelph and did what would normally be #580's work, except #580 doesn't run on Sundays. After watching that, we headed to Guelph Junction to catch CP's new power-transfer train, #138, with 8 units.

CN trains 148, 145, and 398 had little of interest aside from an empty 12-axle QTTX depressed centre flat on the latter, and CP trains 153 and 424 provided the usual mix of intermodal and freight for that line.

After weeks of concentrating on flying school where there was good weather, I headed down to Guelph Junction on a windy, overcast Sunday afternoon and caught 5 trains, the last westbound having both the triple-flag CP unit and a caboose trailing.

OSR picked up KRL 300302 at ABB and brought it to the interchange. GEXR 580 and 432 came from Kitchener minutes apart some time later, and 580 went North to pick up the dimensional at the interchange and deliver it back to 432, which took it directly to Mac yard.

Ontario Northland 2200 and 2202 were seen going through Ingersoll at 14:28. I figured from that they would be at Bayview Junction at 16:15 and Scotch Block at 17:00. At 16:56 CN #396 rolled by with the engines.

On leaving the airport after spending an hour practicing emergency procedures in the circuit, I heard horns. I got to the Stone Road crossing with about 15 seconds to spare before OSR showed up on its way in from Guelph Junction.

Laura and I went from Guelph to Keene, NH and then to Worcester, Mass to visit Laura's parents and attend a friend's wedding respectively. Rob and I sat up front and flew and Laura took these pictures out the rear seat window over the 8th and 9th. These pictures are between Guelph and Keene, New Hampshire.

Laura and I went from Guelph to Keene, NH and then to Worcester, Mass to visit Laura's parents and attend a friend's wedding respectively. Rob and I sat up front and flew and Laura took these pictures out the rear seat window over the 8th and 9th. These pictures are from the short flight from Keene, NH to Worcester, Mass. via Brattleboro, Vermont and Northfield, Mass.

Laura and I went to Guelph Junction for part of the afternoon... but the car wouldn't start to come back. So after only two trains, the second of which arrived at the same time as CAA, we got towed home. :(

Travelling to and from LinuxWorld Conference and Expo aboard trains 86 and 87, I managed to see a few interesting things. The way freight working at the junction of the Weston and Halton subs had an un-boarded CN caboose on it, the first I've seen.

Travelling to and from LinuxWorld Conference and Expo aboard trains 86 and 87, I managed to see a few interesting things. CN #271 had an ex-CNW dash 9 on it heading West, though I wasn't able to get pictures of it. The afternoon's #275 and #385 kept me busy during our treck from the Weston sub to the Guelph sub on the Halton sub.

432 met 85 at Guelph station, following which we went to Guelph Junction and started with 141 meeting 152. After that it was 159, 246, 242, 424, and 525. 525 - Ham turn - had a W03 dimensional, said RTC, and issued GBOs as appropriate. It turned out to be a 4-axle regular empty flatcar, so I really don't know why they classified it as dimensional. I saw GEXR #431 come back later but did not have a camera handy. For anyone in the area, do note that it had CN 399000 articulated potash hopper, so it will be in the area for the next little bit.

Steve woke me up to hit the tracks as soon as he was up and from there we went to the cowpath at Bayview Junction, caught an absurd number of trains in an hour, and moved on to explore Hamilton before coming back for a few more trains at Bayview and going back to Guelph, where we caught 431 - sans CN unit.

After a few hours of turbulence over Fergus, Steve called and reported an ex-MILW unit in MILW paint was going in the hole at Orr's Lake. We left Guelph airfield (CNC4) and got to Guelph Junction with a couple of minutes to spare.

I headed down to Ingersoll with Laura to get some scenic photos to help a modeller, and caught some interesting trains in the process. CN #271 had a hotbox going over the detector at mile 53 (Ingersoll is mile 59) on the North track. Unfortunately there are no switches oriented the right way in the area to set off the car with a melted journal and the train tied up the North track for nearly 3 hours while it waited for CN #581 to finish up at Cami and come out, cross over at Blain, 8 miles to the East, and put the car in an industrial track near Beachville.

We were out of the house before 06:30 to catch NS #327/328 at Hamilton West, the West leg of the Bayview Junction wye. We caught NS #327-CN #382-CP #388-NS #328-VIA #671-CN #435-VIA #70-CN #385-CN #422-CP #167-CN #148 in short order. On the way North we heard CP #159 leaving the Junction to meet CP #424 at Killean, but missed #159 by a hair and didn't wait around for #424 to come.

We got up before 6 in the morning to catch NS #327 and #328 at Hamilton West. We caught both, however 327 only showed its nose off in the distance, and then went backward to Hamilton yard to resolve issues with a broken drawbar. We had to go before it came back and I only took pictures of 328 and the other trains through in the interim.

Travelling from my parents' place back home, we stopped at Ste-Thérèse, Coteau, Belleville, and, for the first time, Cobourg. We caught CN #106 and 3 Via trains at Coteau, CN #377 and #148 at Belleville. We found Cobourg station and heard the detector at Kingston sub 262.9 go off at 91 miles per hour. We weren't sure of our milepost, but that was answered when Via #667 flew by while we were still looking at the trackside guide and found ourselves at mile 264. CN #320 went by almost immediately after, and after we left, we heard 3 more trains come through.

Via #84 left Kitchener with VIA 6420 leading. I headed downtown to catch it at Alma road and again at the station. 6420 recently had a third headlight added to its nose whose purpose I can't quite figure, but it was on.

In the evening I heard CP 5431 Eastbound around Orr's lake and decided it would be a good catch, the 53xx and 54xx engines being increasingly rare. I got to the Junction and caught 5 trains, but 5431 turned out to be London pickup, which turned at Galt.

NS #327 was sighted on the 29th with an unpatched CNW dash 9 leading, and today's #328 was the railfan event of the week with everyone coming out all up and down the line to see it. Luckily, the unit was wyed at St. Thomas and led on the way back.

St. Thomas Central Railway ran a steam excursion with ETR #9 from St. Thomas to Ridgetown and back. Laura, Rob, and I went to see it out of Guelph and saw whatever else we could along the way. We caught it just outside of St. Thomas but after only a few minutes there was no more evidence of coal smoke. I'm not sure if it broke down and whether or not it eventually got fixed if it did. On the way back we caught CN #331 at Ingersoll, a CN eastbound at Woodstock, CP #153 at Ayr, what looked like London pickup with a yellow unit at Galt yard and Galt yard job also there. After landing we caught GEXR #432 light power at Jones Baseline in Guelph but I blew the pictures when I left the zoom on. In the evening we caught CP #246 coming out of Guelph Junction at Guelph Line road.

I got wind of a D8 dimensional load coming up the Halton sub. Being unsure what it was, I went to check it out. I caught up with the 2 GP9s and 2 metal stampers at Milbase switch behind Harvey's and shot it starting down the hill. It stopped for a few minutes and I used the opportunity to head over to the industrial track further down the road where I guessed it was going. When I got there, I greeted a CN employee whose reaction was to order me to stand ridiculously far away and write down my license plate numbers when I disregarded his unjustified instructions. (See in the pictures how far back I was already, on public property!) After this move, I went back up to Scotch Block to catch #383 and #394 which were meeting at Mansewood.

I heard that VIA #84 had 2 engines (919 and 920) and so ran off to catch it downtown, then watched #580 go onto the South industrial. Later in the day, Chris and I caught London pickup, CP #257 at the Junction, and GEXR #431 back in Guelph.

A train climbing Campbellville hill set off some grass fires, closing the 401 for part of the day and the Galt sub for about 7 hours. In the evening, I poked down there to see what I could find. The parade got under way just as the sun was going down, but in the time we were there we caught the CP water train which had helped fight the blaze, three GO trains in very quick succession that had been held short of the hill, CP #419 with a colourful, if domestic, consist, CP #424 with an ex-Milwaukee bandit, and another train whose number I didn't catch with another CEFX yellow trailing and CWR laying equipment. Not bad for 2 hours on CP.

Laura and I went up to Sarnia to meet Steve, Brian, Christopher, and Shaun for a day of chasing CSX #725, the CP run-through on the Sarnia sub. We chased it to Chatham and then went on to Blenheim to see it and then caught CN #435 going through the wig-wag at Tilbury, where we met Ian. In the midst of it we caught a CP meet at Kent Bridge and CN #396 and VIA #78 at Creditville on the way home. The only disappointment of the day was not actually seeing any CSX power working, as #725 is a CP-powered train. It rained the entire day, but stopped just on time for just long enough to shoot every time we wanted to. Thanks, weather.

After the completion of this year's Ottawa Linux Symposium, Laura and I took 2 hours to see what trains we could find. We didn't have enough time to track down either QGRY or the Ottawa Central, but did catch the Hull, Chelsea, and Wakefield steam excursion returning just before 3pm and Ottawa's O-train crossing the Rideau River at Carleton University.

Kevin picked me and Chris up at quarter to 7 and we headed down to Hamilton West to catch 327 and 328. Even at that hour, we were too late for 327, though, but we caught plenty of other trains, then checked out Hamilton yard and caught VIA #85 back in Guelph before calling it a day.

Laura's father came to visit and we showed him our crazy hobby... I took the opportunity to finally check out Paris Junction and we shot a total of 5 trains (CP #248, #257, CN #148, #434, and an unknown), missing an unpatched CNW unit on CN #399 and a UP unit on CN #271.

We headed from my parents' place in Quebec to Laura's parents' place in Brattleboro, Vermont via the scenic route. While Laura had a meeting in Montreal, I spent an hour on the pedestrian bridge in Beaconsfield where I caught 6 trains from 4 companies (CP, CN, AMT, Via), with one foreign unit for good measure. We went to eat on the border between the burroughs of St-Henri and Verdun in Montreal and caught a CN TankTrain unit train heading through town on our way to find food. After that, Laura and I headed to Farnham in the townships to see what Montreal, Maine, and Atlantic had to offer. We found a pair of MMA-lettered GEs switching the yard there but not too much else. From there we went across the border to St. Albans where we caught NECR train 324 leaving town. We heard it get a clearance to Milton to meet a northbound. We did beat it to Milton, but then didn't find the tracks. By the time we found the tracks, we watched the train go by from five or six cars back at the grade crossing line up and didn't try to photograph it. We then found the train it was meeting, which turned out to be a unit train of 6-bay hoppers, but we found no roads to the head end of the train.

We got up early and checked the NECR yard in Brattleboro. NECR #324, which we saw on the 7th, in both St. Albans and Milton was parked on the track nearest the road with no crew. It remained there for the rest of the day, not starting up until around 20:00. Meanwhile, we heard an NECR train head north through town but did not get to it on time, and missed both the north and south-bound Amtrak, but later in the day heard WJED - the Guilford train from White River Junction to East Deerfield yard and we caught it both in Brattleboro and again, after running some errands (GRS tracks in the area are limited to 5-10 mph) in Bernardston.

I heard someone say they would be in Brattleboro in 10 minutes, so, wasting no time, I got to the yard and caught NECR #323 arriving with 107 cars and 3 units. The train switched for a while and then had to clear the main into a siding 1700 feet shorter than the train to meet the southbound Amtrak Vermonter. GRS' EDWJ went by after I left the tracks but I needed to get back and did not get to see it heading North. Later in the day, we heard an MEC train heading South and caught WJED (EDWJ's counterpart) heading back through Brattleboro, and chased it to Vernon.

We drove back from Brattleboro to Guelph, and took the opportunity to see what Depew looks like in daylight. We caught a few trains, but the sun was directly down the tracks and I blew the pictures of the only westbound that came along.

CSX ran a Blenheim extra out of Chatham and Steve gave me enough warning to get to it. Not entirely sure what to expect, Laura and I headed to Chatham and chased the Blenheim extra to Blenheim. We watched it switch for a while before running out of time and heading for home.

I caught OSR crossing Stone Rd southbound by chance. On the train, an ALPX cylindrical hopper had a rather large branch stuck in its catwalk. Later, GEXR #431 came through town with three units and a decent length train.

Steve got married in Sarnia so of course we trucked up there and caught a couple of trains between the wedding and the reception! We watched VIA #85's equipment park at the station, missed CN #271 going into the tunnel, and caught CP #534 coming out of the tunnel.

To break the monotony on a Sunday afternoon, Laura and I headed to Scotch Block to see what we could find. We got stuck in traffic approaching Mansewood just North of Milton and watched CN #394 pass with 3 BNSF units. We finally broke out of the traffic a few minutes later and attempted to pursue them to the other side of Georgetown. We got to a grade crossing at mile 20 and heard #394 calling a foreman at mile 11... We went back to Scotch Block and saw a couple of trains, then went to see if CP had anything much to offer in spite of a track block at Galt until 18:00. We caught one train on the Hamilton sub.

On the 4th, Reading 2100 was moved to the interchange track in St. Thomas. On the 5th, we received word that it was no longer in St. Thomas late in the afternoon, that it had arrived at Woodstock on CP at 5 in the morning. Frustrated at having missed it without hearing anything, I decided that I should at least try going to the Galt sub. While I had little chance of seeing this large steamer at the tracks, I certainly had less if I stayed at home. As it turned out, we only had to wait about 10 minutes, and CP #242 passed -- with Reading 2100! I couldn't believe my eyes, and, instead of waiting for the other two trains that were coming, we decided to head toward Guelph Junction and catch the next eastbound there, deciding whether it would be worth a chase along the way. Shortly after we left, the RTC told #242 that it had to lift 2 units at Hornby, and that was all the encouragement we needed. We caught the train at 9th line as it left the Expressway terminal in fading sunlight.

Reading 2100 whet my appetite for trainspotting and I took a few hours to see what I could catch. I caught about 8 trains between Scotch Block and Guelph Junction, with a white ex-CP rental unit on CN #411 being the most interesting train of the day.

In spite of bad weather, we decided to see what was running on this Thanksgiving day. We saw a few trains but, interestingly, caught NS #328 at Hamilton West at 17:30, much later than its usual 08:00 passage, with 2 UP units light power.

We got up at a somewhat ungodly hour and got to Hamilton West at about 06:50 am. Even at that hour we *still* managed to miss NS #327 and its two UP units by about 20 minutes. We caught a variety of trains around the area, the highlights being an NS horsehead unit leading NS #328, a cabless BNSF GP60B on CN #148, and an ex-SOO 700-series SD40-2 on CP #167 at both Hamilton West and Guelph Junction.

I caught VIA #85 on Kent street and then went a little East for GEXR #432 on a rather dark and stormy day. Late Sunday night, we heard NS #O99 on the Grimsby sub and decided to see it at Ingersoll. We caught it, and 4 CP trains at Ayr, in the pitch blackness of an autumn night.

Laura and I went up to Parry Sound to see what we could find in the land of Canadian domestic trains where CP and CN are close to eachother. I was a little disappointed by the three locations I found where CN and CP were so close together that travelling between them was not necessary, but found a number of locations where one or the other track looked nice. The sun skunked us on virtually every train, becoming obscured just long enough for the engines to pass, but giving me wonderful lighting for countless intermodal containers... Among the interesting stuff we saw was both NS and CSX foreign power, a string of CP boarding cars, and an apparently brand new GO transit bi-level coach.

VIA 6403 - the CBC unit - was on VIA #85. I heard it too late to catch it, but tried anyway, getting it through some bushes. It met 432 at East siding switch Kitchener and I caught 432 through Guelph with 3 units and 2 cars at the station about 30 minutes after missing 85. Later on, Jay warned of a CEFX yellow on CP #248. We went for it, and caught CP #159 and #243 as well, though we were not expecting them.

I wasn't going to miss the CBC engine again, in spite of the bad light. I caught GEXR #580 working at the Fergus sub yard while I waited a few minutes for VIA #85 and the CBC unit to show, and then caught GEXR #432 at the now-closed Cityview crossing between Victoria and Watson.

In 90 minutes at the tracks I found 6 trains at Bayview, leaving with 3 more coming. In the afternoon, I caught London pickup and #243 East of Killean at mile 51.90 Galt sub. At night, we picked up CP #2419, the second 419 at Guelph Junction with 6 brand new ES44AC GE tier 2 environmental units (GEVOs).

More GEVOs on CP #419 -- but this time in daylight. I caught them at Hamilton West, where they were held up by CN #331, and again at Bayview Junction 9 minutes later where they were held up by CN #393.

A bunch of us met at Hamilton West first thing in the morning as a way to meet eachother. We caught 11 trains there, 3 at Puslinch, 1 in Guelph, and 2 more at Killean over the course of the day, with the most interesting things being a new wide-gauge SD70 on a flatcar on GEXR #432 and KCS 4001 primer unit SD70ACe on CP #246 at Killean.

CN #382 had a BNSF unit leading through Woodstock in the early afternoon. Walter called that he'd heard but not seen it. I caught it at mile 30 and found that it had 2 BNSF units and no other power. I shot video with a PowerShot A510 I borrowed from a friend with the untimely death of my PowerShot S45.

Rob woke me with an SMS about CN #492 with a straight SD40 and a Herzog GPS-controlled ballast train heading East by Aldershot. I got moving fairly quickly and caught #492, #338, #154, CP #424, and GEXR #432 before lunch. In the evening we caught CP #141 with CP 4652, a GP40 in Guilford colours and CP markings known to locals as one of the 'ugly brothers'.

Brian reported that CP #167 had 2 GEVOs working the yard at Welland. Laura and I headed down to Kinnear yard to catch them at the yard office. We arrived about 90 seconds before the train did. The new crew found a marshalling violation on the train and it got tied up at the yard for another 3 hours while we darted aimlessly around Bayview Junction and Hamilton West on a relatively quiet Sunday afternoon. Eventually #167 got moving and we chased it up to the Junction, missing it there by a few seconds and going around by 1st Line-10th sideroad-Guelph Line to catch it in Campbellville.

CN #394 had two BNSF units as only power yet again, but this time in the middle of the morning with nice lighting. I couldn't resist. Meanwhile, CP #419 was sighted at Welland with 2 ES44AC GEVOs and, by luck, it took the hill to Guelph Junction where I caught CP #424, #419, #525, and #246 in short order.

Steve and I headed down to Guelph Junction to catch a short Hamilton sub rush there, then proceed to Paris Junction where we caught NS #327 with a BNSF war bonnet leading and around 55 cars and a variety of other interesting trains, then caught CP #424 at East switch Wolverton (Ayr) and CP #423 near West switch Puslinch with two GP9s leading a mixed train.

Jay warned of a big CP #434 with a lot of power and so Laura and I went to see. We caught it with 2 KCS primer ACes behind a plethora of varied CP units, then watched CP #159, #230, and a light engine eastbound. Later on, Shaun advised of a UP GEVO leading a train through Sarnia and Jay saw it at London. We caught it at Ingersoll, giving chase and catching it again at Princeton and at Brantford, where it had a 9 car lift.

Mike and Shane both called to warn about Via #85 with the Budweiser painted F40 not coincidentially numbered 6424. Tom and I went to shoot it in downtown Guelph. Laura and I then caught CP #424, #139, #257, and a Sperry Rail car between Guelph Junction and Killean.

CN had a curious development over night. Two NS run-through trains, both designated CN #784, were seen on the Dundas sub. The first one went down the Hagersville sub to Nanticoke late the night of December 1st. The second parked at about 10:30 am at Paris Junction and was still there as of this writing. I went to Paris to see it, and also saw CN #271, #148, #330, VIA #72 and #73, and CN #435. VIA #85 had 916 tonight, and I caught it at 23:45, completing my VIA P42dc roster!

CN #784 was seen still sitting at Paris last night, so I went there to see if I could possibly get shots of it meeting the morning NS trains. When I got there, I found it was gone, but it had been replaced by a CN #785 on the other side of Paris Junction pointed westward. That train left a couple of hours later and, together with more foreign power (the norm now on CN around here) and a dimensional on CN #331 made for a good, if quiet, day. Oh, and I saw the CP Holiday Train!

CN #394 had a BNSF GEVO leading, CP #159 had CP 5911 leading, CN #271 had an ex-SP tunnel motor trailing, and OSR had ex-BCR 646 leading on the GJR. I could only see one of them and had to choose. CN #394 won.

Laura and I got up rather early to go see the morning 'rush' on the CP Mactier sub outside Vaughan Intermodal Terminal, encouraged along by a mailing list message suggesting CP #106 would have an ES44AC GEVO leading. We also knew CP #230 had CP 5863, the last large multimark I needed from CP's active fleet. As we were getting ready to go, we heard CP #230 get its clearance to Hamilton and so we went to Guelph Junction to see it before it left. We saw it there but it was still too dark to shoot it, so we went to Hamilton West and waited for it there, where we saw NS #327 and CN #392. We then worked our way toward Vaughan, catching CN #399 and #385 around Milton. We finally got to VIT but never did see CP #106 -- it was still not in the area by the time we left. We did, however, see CP #103 and #105 both with SD90s and the former with a different ES44AC GEVO leading than we headed out expecting. To finish it off, we shot OBRY doing excursions at Inglewood on the way home.

NS #328 was reported to have 2 NS GEVOs still in primer as only power. This I could not pass up. I got my 18th and 19th GEVOs at Paris Junction on this snowy morning. In the afternoon we shot GEXR #432 at Rockwood in a pretty good snow storm.

On our way to visit my family, we stopped at Coteau for a few hours, venturing twice up to De Beaujeu's diamond for CP trains. We saw an eastbound with CN 2205, CN #327 with 2 CSX units, #149 with a BNSF, a westbound with ONT 2105, CP #107 with a DPU, and CN #538 switching with the slug leading. After that, we went for lunch and subsequently saw the CN TankTrain heading West and a Loram rail grinder heading East through Montreal, but got no pictures of either.

We got up in Bangor a little later than we'd have liked and headed up to Brownville Junction to see what we could find. We just missed MMA 8569, a freshly painted MMA unit, heading into the shops at Derby, but caught 2 MMA F40s and a variety of other interesting trains including NBSR over the course of the day in the area. We also met two area railfans who guided us through the day, and without whom we would not have caught much of what we saw, so thanks Kevin and Matt!

We slept in Lewiston, Maine with the intention of catching St. Lawrence and Atlantic's only daytime train we could be sure existed the next morning. We caught it and an MEC train at Danville Junction, and pondered how to shoot at the Lewiston Junction locomotive facility. Once we caught the SLR train we headed to eastern New Hampshire to see if we could catch the New Hampshire North Coast's gravel train, which we did - at Sanbornville.

We spent the night with a friend in rural New Hampshire and got going late in the morning, working our way West toward Vermont. On the way, we stumbled upon a tourist railway, though not operating at the moment, in Meredith. We proceeded on to White River Junction and headed South along the NECR Palmer sub, stopping to check on the Concord and Claremont, to Bellows Falls where we watched an HLCX-painted Vermont Rail locomotive switch a handful of cars from VTR trackage onto NECR trackage.

In spite of being a lousy day out, I wanted to get out of the house. At 05:15 I heard the detector at mile 116 go off and just had to investigate. I watched 2 units run light through town and then went back to bed. NECR #324, normally through Brattleboro in the middle of the night, passed through at around 11:30, Amtrak #56 at 12:30 and Guilford's EDWJ (East Deerfield-White River Junction) went through at about 15:30.

Someone on the NECR list indicated that the Vermonter would have a cab car instead of a second unit, so I made an extra effort to make sure I caught it, after having missed the morning freight thanks to family obligations.

I went after NECR's Southbound, hoping to shoot it at the bridge in Miller's Falls I accomplished this, but somehow accidentally put my camera into Manual mode instead of Aperture Priority, and didn't notice... causing a number of washed out pictures (originals here). I ran them through a histogram equalisation and they look less (or at least differently) awful, and will figure out what to do with them and the originals when I get home. I then went to Greenfield, hoping to catch EDWJ, which ran unusually early, and rushed back to Brattleboro to catch it there (where it ended up sitting for 2 hours waiting for permission to proceed. I guess it doesn't pay to be early!)

We slept in Schenectady, New York on our way home, hoping to wake up to find some Deleware and Hudson (CP) trains in the area. We did find one, parked inaccessibly in the distance. We found the overpass of the CSX and the D&H trackage at South Schenectady, shooting one manifest freight at a nearby grade crossing on the CSX. We then proceeded along our main goal of getting home, stopping at Utica to see (kind of) the NYSW and at Geneva to see the Finger Lakes Railway before stopping at Lyons to see some CSX trains before hitting the road as bad weather rolled in. On our way to Geneva, we passed a Finger Lakes train going the other way through Woodstock, New York, and pursued it West to nearby Seneca Falls. Its EOT sounds different from most and broadcasts on 160.205, so we didn't recognise it until we saw the train pass. CSX, for its part, mostly gave us intermodal trains with big GEs for power, reminding me somewhat eerily of CP! This concluded are 2 week travelling adventure ostensibly to see family for the holidays.